Steam DRM Bans Used Games?

[BrotherRool]

So I'm trying to borrow my brothers DVD of Empire: Total War and it refuses to let me install it (including offline) unless I sign into my brothers account. And a quick search on the internet suggests that once the game has been signed to someones Steam then the only way to get it on another PC (including if you bought the disk used) is to contact Steam support. And according to the Steam support page, they don't actually reset your account if you bought it second hand.

In fact Steam policy seems to indicate that you're not allowed to reuse any disk with Steam connectivity ever.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1673-IDGK-4694

So does this happen to other games? And how come there wasn't an uproar about it? I mean we've complained about 5 install limits, about Project $10 and multiplayer passes. And all the while Steam have just made it actually impossible to even lend someone a copy of a game, never mind try and resell it?

I'm living in the same house as my brother and Steam is so controlling I can't take the CD from the family computer and stick it in my laptop and play the game.

I've never come across more restrictive DRM (Except for always-online) why did no-one complain?

 

[Rawne1980]

It's not just Steam.

The vast majority of PC games have activation codes that stop them being "lent out" or sold on.

Once a game is activated it's useless to anyone else. The only way to do it is play through your brothers account.

Nobody complained because it's been that way for years now.

 

[Rack]

There was kind of a huge furore about this when Half Life 2 came out. Over time and with enough steam sales people sort of got used to it. I mean it's still a tremendous ball ache, offline mode is STILL broken and it still devalues games but it's ultimately become the least inconvenient form of DRM and when you buy games for a fiver it doesn't seem so bad that you can't lend them on or ultimately use them 10 years down the line.